This afternoon was another culinary experience at Nath’s grandparent’s house. It started out with trying Patis, a famous french liquor made from anis. I knew I probably wouldn’t like it because I am no fan of the flavor of anis but I tried it anyway. It was mixed with some other juice or something but it was still too strong of a flavor for me so I took one sip and thanked them for letting me try it. Then her grandma poured me some porte wine from Portugal but even that was too sweet for me.

For lunch we had pote lorraine which was different sausages and pork steaks slow cooked until the meat is so tender it almost melts in your mouth. There was also a beet salad that was so good that I ate it up before I remembered to take a photo. The beets came from her grandmother’s garden in the back yard. For dessert we had mirabelle and her grandfather had me try mirabelle liquor that he made in 1965. Usually you pour the liquor over the mirabelle fruits and eat it like that but he had me take a cube of sugar, dip it in the liquor, put it in my mouth and chew. He said it would take the edge off but it was still the strongest and most intense mix of burning in my mouth. It took me a few minutes to recover after that one. Nath told me her other grandpa used to gargle the mirabelle liquor every morning, to clean his throat and keep him from getting sick.

After lunch we went to Nath’s other grandma’s house to chat with her for a hot second. She served us chocolates in the shape and color of mini golf balls while I listened to them catch up in French. She had two tiny fridges covered in magnets from the US. I got a kick out of that. Since I couldn’t speak to her in English, I pointed to each magnet that I’ve been to and tried to explain with my hands that I’d visited or lived there. She either thought I was a crazy person, banging at my chest to indicate “ME HERE” or she understood. I’ll never know.

We were meeting up with Mimi and her boyfriend for dinner tonight so we decided to make brownies to bring with us. We bought all of the ingredients versus buying a box and throwing in some eggs. I was worried that they wouldn’t turn out because I was converting the measurements from cups to grams and brownies are so finicky. An hour later, we pulled them out of the oven and they were PERFECT. I’ve never made perfect brownies before. These had a flaky top layer and were super moist in the center. I patted myself on the back for that one.

When we arrived to Mimi’s, we were greeted by an autistic cat that wouldn’t let us go up the stairs. It was a cute cat but something scared me about it being autistic as I’ve never known a cat to have such a diagnosis. It even had it’s own mini cat couch. But that doesn’t top what I saw when I walked into the kitchen. I look down and see a giant white bunny at my feet, hopping around like it’s the owner of the house. This thing was so domesticated it was insane. It came to snuggle with me a few times and proceeded to get white hairs all over my new black sweater. We played poker after dinner and I lost. First bowling, then this? I was on a losing streak…